Rather than crap out into formless noise-clogged borecore irrelevance as I was afraid they would, LIGHTNING BOLT have instead tightened up their attack and, with few exceptions, committed themselves to some pretty wild speedcore that sounds little like anyone before them. I can only envision that there will be noisehounds that will call this 4th album a “sell out” record, and while the pummeling's a little more recognizable in form & function from the worlds of blitzkrieg metal and fuzz-blurred Italian slam rock, it's still a power jolt to all but the easily bored. The only quarter I'll broker with any complainers is that if this ends up as a soundtrack for some Extreme Sports DVDs or Games, I won't be surprised. In fact all the "Woooo", "weeeee", "hooooo" sounds throughout the disc sound like me trying to pop a raging 360 ollie off the half pipe, when I can barely stand up on a skateboard. Terrifying stuff.

I like this one better than their previous, "Wonderful Rainbow", because it's generally more frenetic and consistent in its pulsating, overmodulated overdrive from song to song without a lot of wankery to please the pundits. I still can't believe they can make a bass and drumkit sound like Motorhead, Black Flag and Teenage Jesus & The Jerks rolled into one fat-assed sherman. Come on people, are they putting us on here? The opener, "2 Morro-Morro Land", and track #4, "Riff Raff", are wild BMX rides to hell, fast and angry and full of terror but still listenable enough to get the pit hopping. Even when the pace throttles down for a bit it's still as heavy as thick aural syrup. Word has it there's no touring to support this one in the short-term, so I guess I'll just have to wait to see their "floor show" sometime in 2006 or later. In the meantime, their hottest blast since 2001's meisterwork "Ride The Skies".